Both Mansoor Ahmed and Mohammed alias Khalid led tough lives, living 24x7 with automatic weapons and in a state of constant alertness filled with tension. Life wasn’t easy as a militant in Jammu and Kashmir. If you were not alert enough, you could get killed.

Over time, Mansoor – who was a district commander of a militant outfit – found it difficult to sleep at night. He started taking sleeping pills. “So engulfed I was with worries and guilt,” he would confess much later.

Mohammed became known as Khalid after he underwent guerrilla training, and was tasked by his handlers to spread militancy. He took to his new life like a fish in a river; but as months rolled by, tensions began to build up.

Kashmir results

Call it fate or luck, both Mansoor and Mohammed – otherwise unknown to each other in the killing fields of Kashmir – came in contact with the Art of Living Foundation of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. When the spiritual group’s teachers began imparting the elementary lessons in breathing techniques and meditation, there was no instant reception. However, once the benefits became to sink in, both Mansoor as well as Mohammed embraced their new lessons with a sense of contentment.

“After I underwent the Art of Living programme, I realized the futility of what I was doing and gave up the path of violence,” Mansoor says. “My life has changed.”

It dawned on Mohammed after the lessons and a meeting with Ravi Shankar that the path he had chosen was wrong. “We now want to spread love and non-violence in Kashmir.” Of course, he knows it is easier said than done.

Mansoor and Mohammed may have been unknown foot soldiers of the Pakistan-backed militancy, but who has not heard of Burhan Wani, the Kashmiri militant leader whose killing in 2016 triggered a tsunami of anger and protests in the Kashmir Valley?

Burhan Wani

His father, Muzaffar Wani, too made it one day to Bengaluru, where the Art of Living has its international headquarters. He would later tell the media that those attacking and burning schools in the wake of his son’s killing were doing a disservice to Kashmiri society. This was “unacceptable”, he said.

Art of Living teachers say the quiet successes they have achieved in Kashmir, where militancy against India has raged since 1989 with no signs of ending any time soon, is just the tip of the iceberg. “Our re-radicalization programme is in fact a far more successful campaign that the ones driven by many governments,” said one of the teachers in an interview, with a request that he not be named.

Indeed, the Art of Living has performed small and major miracles, at times in media glare and often without any fanfare, in areas as diverse and different as Colombia, in South America, and Sri Lanka, Kosovo and Iraq, Ivory Coast and Kashmir, Lebanon and Jordan, and Manipur and Syria. These were and some of them still are among the world’s most troubled spots, territories that have seen some terrible and horrific violence, often running into long years and even decades.

All that the Art of Living does is said to be based on the philosophy of Ravi Shankar, addressed by his followers reverentially as "Gurudev": “Unless we have a stress-free mind and a violence-free society, we cannot achieve world peace.” A non-profit, educational and humanitarian organization founded in 1981, the Art of Living now operates in 156 countries.

Mindset changes

Ravi Shankar says: “Our peace-building programmes bring about a profound and self-sustaining transformation in attitude, mindset, well-being and behaviour of individuals and communities involved or affected by violence and extremism. We inspire and train participants to use non-violent means to achieve legitimate needs and mobilize them to become effective peace builders in their own communities… We lay a strong psycho-social foundation in which other peace and development efforts can take root.”

While the number of those who have benefitted from the Art of Living’s trauma relief is some 150,000, a total of 2,000 fighters are claimed to have laid down their weapons in various parts of the world including India, Kosovo, Colombia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Ivory Coast, Iraq and the Philippines after being inspired by the spiritual group. In many cases, Art of Living teachers took to transforming hardened militants in prisons in both India and abroad. A lot of this work, the teacher said, is done quietly, without any drum beating.

To non-Indian audiences, the Art of Living teachers make it abundantly clear that meditation and breathing techniques have nothing to do with any religion and that these provide universal health benefits besides unclogging the negativity within. Heart-to-heart sessions that often follow bring about a sense of harmony by facilitating a dialogue between people with diverse viewpoints. And since just breathing exercises cannot generate income, the Foundation makes it a point to teach skills to the young and not to young men and women it interacts with.

Magic in Iraq

Shafiqur Rehman is an Iraqi who one of the teachers remembers fondly. “We knew only death and despair,” he once said. “Now we can smile.” Another Art of Living beneficiary in Baghdad, Ramia Sagban, said the situation in Iraq was so bad that most people had forgotten to smile. Until he came in contact with the Foundation, “we had no hope and we could only pray for some power to come and take us out of the messy situation.” One of the Indian teachers who frequented Baghdad said he and the others would often hear automatic gunfire from outside, at times not very far away.

Inspired by its success, the Iraqi government asked the Art of Living to expand its programmes. Both Ravi Shankar and his aides have engaged in talks with Iraqi political figures, Shia leaders and tribal heads to give peace a chance. Till date, an estimated 50,000 Iraqis have benefitted from trauma relief and community empowerment campaigns in Baghdad, Basra, Suleimania and Karbala. Iraqis have also visited the Art of Living hub in Bengaluru.

Both the Colombian government and the armed group FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) have acknowledged the Art of Living’s contribution to the peace process that saw the rebels emerge as a political party after prolonged negotiations.

In Manipur, undoubtedly the most troubled state in India’s northeast, the Art of Living has been functioning for nearly 20 years. Some years ago, the group managed to influence the surrender of 68 militants belonging to different rebel groups in the state. This was no easy task. Art of Living sources say that this involved reaching out to insurgent groups across the Indian border, winning their trust as well as those of the authorities in Manipur. Some intermediaries also met Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in Bengaluru before the arms surrender.

De-radicalization

All this is in sharp contrast to the growing admission by Western governments that their own de-radicalization programmes are failing to achieve the desired results despite the enormous funding that has gone into them. In 2020, there was disgust in the UK after deadly terror attacks were blamed on convicted jihadists who were released from prison after going through re-radicalization lessons.

Austrian authorities too have admitted being fooled by jihadists who claimed they have been converted after undergoing de-radicalization programme. In India, a 20-year-old woman who wanted to be a suicide bomber was de-radicalized twice in three years but kept returning to her jihadist ideology. 

As one Art of Living official says: “We believe in moving slowly but firmly, and laying a strong foundation from which you will never want to escape.”

(The writer is a veteran journalist and author. Views are personal. He can be reached at ranjini17@hotmail.com)